Merry Christmas and introducing your new Rangers!

Finally we have reached that wonderful time of year - after months of darkening evenings and murky mornings, the Winter Solstice arrived and now we can look forward to brighter times!

The morning of the Winter Solstice as seen from our Woodshed

Oh, and it's Christmas! The Elves have been busy feeding the deer up in case Father Christmas should need a fallow stand-in tomorrow night - you can see them today and tomorrow at 2pm feeding from their bright red sleigh...

Unfortunately the weather continues to bring us rain and winter rather than a nice frosty or snowy holiday, so you might want to wear your new wellies or walking boots when you come for a walk to work off those mince pies next week. The newly surfaced Woodland Walk, however, is dry and smooth so that's definitely one to enjoy. We celebrated its opening by testing out the new Trampers:

We spent a day at Sunnycroft last week to help clear up after a large walnut tree fell over during a storm. It was quite a job to saw up but with a crew of Sunnycroft and Attingham volunteers the brash was soon cleared and burned while we cut the remaining tree into logs and lengths which will be dried and planked up for later use. Walnut is a beautiful wood, often used in wood turning, furniture making and for gun stocks. 

Before

After!

Joy and Colin modelling the new
Ranger uniform

And now, an update from the wardens - we are no longer wardens! Last week we made the official transition to the title of Rangers, in keeping with the rest of the National Trust. We will still be doing the same work but we have some snazzy (and bright) new uniforms (to be kept for best for now, so expect to see us in our greens for a while yet!) and some alterations to our role profiles. A trying-on session was immediately needed - introducing the Ranger and Area Ranger!

This week we have kept busy despite most of our volunteers having a break for the holiday; deer feeding, packaging venison, looking for lost dogs, dealing with found dogs, checking trees after the wind, putting up emergency fencing after a car accident, keeping the park supplied with logs to keep everyone warm and cosy, and deep cleaning the butchery - and it's not the end of the week yet...

Remember that the Park is closed on Christmas Day so we will see you again from Boxing Day. On behalf of all of the Ranger team, Merry Christmas!